Daily Archives: August 5, 2008

In an Indian frame of mind

Months after its release, I finally got to watch the movie The Darjeeling Limited which was filmed it on location in India. I’m a great fan of the country and of the movie’s director, Wes Anderson, so how could I go wrong? It turns out I couldn’t because I enjoyed this movie and the job it does capturing the chaos of travel in that country. It’s got trains, planes, buses and motorcycle-rickshaws all of which you’ll use if you ever try to journey across the immense sub-continent.

Nitpickers will point out that much of the film was made in Rajasthan even though it is supposedly set near the Himalayan foothills, two areas which don’t resemble each other in the least. The movie is also less about India and more about three American brothers who try to “find” themselves during their visit and the country really doesn’t serve as much more than a colourful backdrop for the action, but I didn’t care. It looked great and I liked the story and characters.

I must have been in an Indian frame of mind, because shortly after seeing the movie, I stumbled across this interesting introduction to the Indian head wiggle. It’s a non-verbal form of communication that is unique to India. If you’ve ever been there for any length of time you will have soon noticed it. It’s not quite a head nod or a head shake, but something in between.

Another thing that foreigners visiting India learn to deal with is the usage of the Hindi word achha. Indians pepper their speech with it, but the word has a variety of meanings. It can mean okay, good, uh-huh and a variety of other subtle things.